Staff profile: Meet the Beacon Journal's Jim Mackinnon
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Position: I am currently the morning breaking news reporter, starting at 6:30 a.m. covering initial crime and fire reports, traffic, and other breaking news in Akron and elsewhere in Summit County.
I have been with the Beacon Journal more than 22 years, primarily as a business reporter on a number of beats, including transportation/trucking, utilities, the tire/rubber/polymer industry and more.
Before I arrived in Akron in 1999, I was city editor and assistant city editor at the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa. I started there as a reporter; beats included Penn State University, some public schools, county government, and business.
And going even further back, I was a stringer for The Providence Journal, city hall reporter (and sometimes fill-in city editor) at The Newport Daily News, and editor/reporter/photographer at a small chain of family-owned weekly newspapers, all in Rhode Island. (In case you are wondering, I am a New Jersey native who grew up in Rhode Island and moved to Ohio from Pennsylvania.)
Why I became a journalist
I’m nosy, I like to write, I like to learn, and I hope I sometimes make a positive difference. I have two journalism degrees … at one point years ago I contemplated teaching journalism.
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What I like best about my job
I often get to go to places and meet people the public cannot and then tell stories about those places and people to the public. I’m a bit nerdy in that I like going through business and public documents “to find the rest of the story” when I get the opportunity. Probably my biggest strength is explanatory journalism.
A story I worked on that has had a lasting impact on me
There’s no single story. Still, one that comes to the top of my mind was a project I proposed called Blimp Garage where I followed the building of a Goodyear Blimp from start to finish, with stories each week on what was taking place inside the Wingfoot Lake blimp hangar to the blimp’s first flight. I also followed the initial building of a Goodyear Eagle NASCAR race tire in Akron to when it was placed on Jimmy Johnson’s No. 48 car in the Coca-Cola 600 in North Carolina. And I may be the only person you know who was contaminated with radiation … it happened while I was reporting a story that took me and others inside the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant reactor containment chamber. Yes, I obviously lived to tell the tale. My biggest disappointment from that experience is that I never developed superpowers.
What is the biggest challenge I face?
Right now, sometimes there is too much to do and too little time to do it when there are a couple of stories breaking simultaneously. I think I am primarily a linear person in a world that often expects multi-tasking.
What I like to do when I’m not working
I enjoy movies (I have a home theater), reading (I may have enough books to open a store), handgun/rifle/shotgun target shooting, cooking/grilling and making authentic barbecue, and am a bit of a car nut. I like local craft beer tasting rooms, hanging with friends in the Akron area and regularly visiting family and friends back on the East Coast. I was an Akron Reads tutor for nearly 20 years and would love to get back to that if the program resumes post-pandemic. I am contemplating getting back into motorcycle riding this year, if my back allows. I also like some sports. While I root for the Browns, my sports heart leans to New England: The Boston Bruins and New England Patriots, primarily. (I’ve been losing interest in Major League Baseball for a while and pretty much never cared for professional basketball, soccer, golf, tennis, etc.) I occasionally open a public video chat room on Facebook and invite friends there to stop by and say hi, but I usually try to avoid spending significant time on social media in my off hours.
Beacon Journal reporter Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him @JimMackinnonABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/JimMackinnonABJ.
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This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Staff profile: Meet the Beacon Journal's Jim Mackinnon
